Mason County meth case detailed

Thursday

Mar 6, 2014 at 10:24 PM

Detective describes discoveries while investigating burglary

Ken Harris of Gatehouse Media Illinois

HAVANA — Testimony by a Mason County Sheriff’s Office detective Thursday revealed several details of the case against four Mason City residents after authorities investigating a residential burglary discovered a meth lab.

Detective David Baker testified at preliminary hearings for Brendin L. Williams, 22, and Teddy W. Lee, 25, and laid out the case against the two men, as well as Denise A. Taylor, 42, and Bradin M. Taylor, 19. Williams and Bradin Taylor are Denise Taylor’s sons and Lee is her boyfriend.

The four were living at 418 S. Keefer St. in Mason City when deputies showed up Feb. 7 to search the house for stolen firearms, family heirlooms and jewelry taken in a residential burglary.

Before conducting the search, though, Baker said the department did some research on the people believed to be living in the house.

Reviewing the pseudoephedrine purchasing records, they found Williams had made 16 purchases of the maximum allowable amounts of pseudoephedrine in the year leading up to the raid. Denise Taylor had made even more than that. Lee had made 25 purchases of pseudoephedrine and had even been denied by stores multiple times for having purchased too much, Baker said.

Authorities spoke with Darsha T. Smith, who was sentenced to five years in prison in 2013 for participating in the burglary and arson of the Longbranch Saloon in 2011. Smith said he had lived with the family for a while and said Williams was a “meth head.” Denise Taylor would crush up all the pills everybody brought her and use them to make meth at the house, according to Baker’s testimony.

A confidential source told authorities that he had seen Denise Taylor do this, Baker said.

In addition to the stolen items found in the house, authorities allegedly found a syringe loaded with meth inside Denise Taylor’s purse in the bedroom she shared with Lee. On Lee’s side of the bed they found a foil wrapper that the confidential source said Lee used to consume meth, according to testimony.

In a dog kennel next to the garage outside of the house, authorities allegedly found an assembled meth lab in a trash bag. Baker said meth makers tend to keep the lab outside of the home because of the strong ammonia smell. Found in a coffee filter with the equipment was 30 grams of what is believed to be crushed pseudoephedrine pills. A search for fingerprints and testing to identify the powder are being conducted at a crime lab, Baker said.

Attorneys for Williams and Lee contended authorities have no proof that the legally purchased pseudoephedrine was used to make meth, but the judge ruled that there was probable cause for the cases to continue.

Williams has been charged with meth conspiracy, which carries a possible prison sentence of six to 30 years upon conviction. Lee has been charged with possession of 30 or more grams of a meth precursor, which carries the same possible sentence. Both men pleaded not guilty and requested a trial by jury.

Denise Taylor also was charged Thursday with meth conspiracy. Bradin Taylor already has been charged with possession of at least 30 grams of a meth precursor.